


Serial Numbers in RPF

by yourlibrarian



Series: Fanfic Genres [4]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M, Meta, Original Fiction, RPF, RPS - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 15:45:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6861232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A discussion of  RPF AU stories and whether they can work as original fiction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Serial Numbers in RPF

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Restraint](https://archiveofourown.org/works/61002) by [DarkEmeralds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkEmeralds/pseuds/DarkEmeralds). 



> Originally posted February 28, 2011

In [another post](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6804730) I mentioned completing Restraint by darkemeralds, and a question that was posted [on writingthewall](http://writingthewall.dreamwidth.org/10908.html): "Should more RPF 'cross the line' and be turned into publishable original fiction?" I wanted to discuss Restraint in light of this question because, as an RP AU, it falls into that area that most closely resembles the "could be original fiction" concept since it begins from a point where the RP characters (in this case, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, though also a variety of other recognizable figures) are already not represented in their commonly seen roles as actors and 21st century individuals. 

While the SPN AU by definition is not about the actors as actors, they are nonetheless often very similar to the actors in some ways. I'm going to import the terms I discussed in [another post](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6765271) about how confusing the term AU can be. They are:

alternate life (AL)  
alternate setting (AS),  
alternate timeline (AT)  
alternate characterization (AC)

My general take is that the more of these alternate factors that go into a fic (RP or not), the more it resembles original fiction and not fanfic, because all the common points of connection to the original characters or world get stripped away. Also, [as I mentioned earlier](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6804730), I feel that the use of actual people as models for stories is already almost ubiquitous in published fiction, so the real question is how deeply are the serial numbers filed off? In terms of moving the story from something about actual people to a story whose components have been thoroughly reassembled, does anything identifiable remain? 

Restraint seems at first to do a lot of filing. This is quite clearly an "alternate setting" story, where rather than being set in their own time and location, the characters are placed back in time and moved from the U.S. to England (and some other locations). They are also given alternate lives. They did not grow up in the same sort of families, follow the same sort of career paths, or have similar experiences to the ones the actors have had in their actual lives. There is an alternate timeline component as well, with, for example, the characters first seeing one another early on in their lives, which has no correlation to actual timelines with the real people. Plus, at least part of the story takes place when the characters are much older than they are currently. Lastly, the characters' names, though recognizable, are also changed (something hardly ever done in the RP AU).

The last factor, characterization, is a dicey one when discussing an RP fic, much less an RP AU. Can one ever have a fixed characterization for RP protagonists? Certain details can be beyond dispute, but others are often quite speculative, and indeed change from fic to fic. So with an RP AU that already changes three factors, hanging a "canon" connection solely on characters makes it a tenuous connection indeed.

Yet I believe that the author does this rather well (indeed, considerably better than many other fics that are shorter and closer to canon). Restraint is a long work, so I am going to be pretty selective about examples. But I found myself increasingly impressed as I went along, by the way that small details connected the characters to their canon lives and selves in ways that would surely pass by non-fandom readers.

### Canon Connections

1) Professions: Although no characters in the book are actors, one could not say that none were celebrities. Given the setting in the early to mid 1800s, the role of celebrities that currently exists in U.S. culture cannot be mapped to this time period in quite the same way. Yet celebrity has always existed, particularly in the way it might most deeply affect the actors in question -- in terms of a lack of privacy, a fear of disclosure, and a status and wealth poorly connected to their actual contributions to society.

While we certainly have aristocrats today, and the source of Tristan's income is never explored in much detail, the sort of close observation, competitiveness, and deference given to highly recognized actors are certainly in the vein of what Tristan himself goes through due to his rise in rank in the novel. While always having had a certain level of status and attention, given his family background and his good looks, the change that occurs once he gains the title of viscount (and the expectation that he will inherit a barony) is something that affects his life and personality. It's something that John recognizes about him early on (and in another lifetime, he would no doubt not just recognize it, but identify with it). 

John's status is not in the same realm, nor is his celebrity as an artist really explored much in the book. But I found it interesting how one could say Tristan was famous more for being wealthy, attractive, and having a past people liked to talk about, than anything we actually saw him do. His future direction in politics was, I thought, chosen to highlight his reliance on people skills and also his interests in some social causes. By comparison, John is literally an artist. His life revolves around his passion for it. John's love of music, though he does not perform it, and his personality morph while in "Italian mode", speak to the life of a professional actor but amateur musician. While film directing did not exist at the time, being a painter seems a nice approximation in the way he sees the world visually and attempts to represent it with color and staging to reveal a story.

Between Tristan and John we can see the various aspects of the actor life sketched out, particularly in how they are affected by visibility and gossip –- from both their industry fellows and the hoi polloi. Contemporary J2 fic often posits the loss of status, professional opportunities, and money should their employers or the public ever suspect their relationship. So, too, do Tristan and John have to live their lives in secrecy, separation, and mistrust of others. Though they have collaborators over the years, the potential penalties for discovery are dire, and the author did a great job of making the threat more visceral than anything a contemporary fic could do. John and Tristan not only have to guard against a loss of their sustenance and reputation, but possibly of their lives. Because of these much more severe and pervasive consequences, it is far easier to understand why their lives run the course they do, as opposed to the "happy endings" given in contemporary fics where the actors blithely throw away their livelihoods, and nevertheless find acceptance from nearly all. Not that those endings don't generally strike me as unrealistic anyway, but I found it interesting how changing the terms and setting made me seriously fearful for the characters in a way I have never felt in a contemporary setting. Perhaps it's because we often feel so removed from the actors who live lives largely different from our own, and they're generally far more privileged and insulated, that the consequences don't seem as real.

There was also an emphasis in the story on the physical, with both John and Tristan boxing, and Tristan riding for both sport and health, which I thought a nice reference to not only their athleticism but their growing skill in fight scenes.

2) Personalities: A quick-sketch view of the two characters' personalities is nicely in keeping with JP's irrepressability and JA's cautious social nature, as well as JA's more serious bent to his craft. I saw Penrith's love of horses and horsemanship to be a representation of JP's dedication to running as a form of exercise as well as his general love of animals (I don't think a lot of aristocrats jogged for sport in those days). Other little details popped up at different intervals, such as Penrith fracturing his wrist after a bar brawl, which referenced shared experiences between the two actors, as well as JP's habit of injuring himself given the least opportunity. I was also reminded when Tristan died, relatively young of heart failure, of Misha Collins' comment at a convention about how JP was likely to be more shortlived than JA because tall people's hearts tend to give out on them. 

While the families in the stories were largely different, this is an area where it's perfectly understandable that varying interpretations would seem fitting. Short of a few details such as the size of their families and the fact that JA's family was part of a very conservative church, I would imagine few writers would really be able to speak to anything canonical about them. So how, specifically, their personalities were formed by their families is usually left to the imagination of the author. The major difference here is that neither man was shown to be close to his family as a whole, though each had, for a time, been close to a sibling. Instead, each one's family was shown to be a source of deep conflict. Frankly, I find this to be a pretty realistic take, not just for the story but for individuals who are the sole person in their family to live the life of an entertainer. While pride is often discussed (and I'm sure it's true), I doubt that it hasn't caused problems as well.

Aside from some familiar supporting cast members in the story that appear in many an RP AU, (the fairly silent "former soldier" Marchbanks made me think of Jim Beaver), I was entertained by other figures such as Martin and Albert, who I thought might well be the title characters of The Birdcage. Tristan's two dogs, Samson and Delilah, were another familiar shoutout to readers in the know. In short, the story was ridden with small details that spoke to fannish knowledge and added a layer of familiarity into both the relationship and the characters that is either not present in a work of original fiction, or is not sufficiently erased for a work of original fiction. I have certainly read more than one non-fanfic novel that has made me wonder if certain people were models for the characters, but it could be that I tend to bring my fannish reading practices into everything I read these days. The problem is not only on the writing end but the reading one, since someone familiar with another fandom might see many details in a work that I would miss.

### Taking a Different Road

I confess that the writingthewall question "Should more RPF 'cross the line' and be turned into publishable original fiction?" immediately made me think of Restraint. As I neared the end of the book, I felt a sense of sadness that it would not get a much wider audience, particularly since I felt that no knowledge of the original canon would be needed to enjoy it, and its length would make such a transition quite feasible. With the m/m romance genre flourishing nowadays, this aspect of the story wouldn't bar it from publication either.

Yet at the same time, I can't be clear that a lot of my enjoyment of the story didn't come from, not only the author's storytelling skill, but my own more easily drawn connection to the characters. Am I really able to separate the fact that this was a good story from the fact that it was a J2 story? I'm not sure I'm the best judge of how much I am contributing to it as I go along, and how much I should value those contributions.

Returning to the question about "should" more RPF be published, I am not clear where the benefit lies (other than to the author's income, hopefully). Certainly from a community standpoint the answer would seem to be no, because that would make it more likely that less high-quality reading material would be freely available. If I wanted to pass along stories now to people outside the fandom I could, though I doubt anyone I know would want to read them –- not so much because they were fandom stories as because they wouldn't be interested in the story genres, or else they're not spending much time reading these days anyway.

Yet there must be something else afoot here because, as I said, I did think as I was reading Restraint that it should be a published work, but I'm not entirely certain why. Do we perhaps think that feedback is too infrequently given, and too minor a recompense for the sort of work the author has done, compared to the pleasure we have received? Perhaps. 

I suspect that it is also a status issue for some, as the ability to point to something as a published work seems to take it outside the realms of the amateur and its negative connotations. Given that most fanfic is romantic in nature, I don't think recognition as a romance author or reader falls a whole lot beyond the amateur in general society though! 

I will make a last remark to follow up on a comment to my previous post which noticed that 3 of the nominated Best Picture films this year were RP stories. I will take that a step further to note that the Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best _Original_ Screenplay winners were all the same RP story, plus the _other_ writing award of the night, for Best Adapted Screenplay, was also an RP film. There is a lot of money to be made and status to be gained by writing RPF, so perhaps whoever asked the question about fanfic crossing to published status simply felt that fandom writers should get a bigger piece of the pie.


End file.
